New

Remember when I went to IF for the 4th of July (more on that adventure next week!) and left my home looking like this?

Everything I owned had to be scrunched into my kitchen because my sweet landlady, Lucy, decided that I needed new carpet. And I was sooooo happy that she decided that because, while I have always loved everything else about my cute little hobbit hole, the 37 year old gold and blue carpet was a bit dated. And a bit, well, grimy. This is Cow Town after all, and doormats can only help so much.

I was extra excited by the prospect of new carpet because I had recently made a few other changes to my living room decor.

Take my couch, for example. I love this couch. It lived in my parent's living room for years before moving to Cow Town with me. It is a good TV couch, a great reading couch, and a wonderful sleeping couch.

When it started looking a little tired, I got it a cover and some pretty pillow to try to snazz it up a bit. That worked for a while...

...but over spring break, after a couple years of fighting with a canvas couch onesie, I decided to use some of my tax refund money to get it a nicer, kinder, less ornery cover.

Kristie totally approved.Which really, is the most important thing.

And while I was couch-cover-shopping, I decided that it was also time to update the living room curtains. I am sure that those curtains had some serious swagger when Lucy put them up 37 years ago, and they were really handy when I moved in about five years ago and curtain money was not in my budget, I was really, REALLY ready for a change.

So my mom helped me pick out these great panels: grey blue with brown tree-branch details on the lower half. I knew they were meant to grace my living room windows. After all, the design is called "Alton"...

... and in my experience, anything called Alton HAS to be super cute.

 

Like, seriously cute.

The curtains didn't disappoint.They fit in nicely with the new blue and brown theme I had going on.

And just when I though I couldn't get any happier with my hobbit hole's redesign, the heavens parted, angels started singing, and Sister Woodhouse appeared in a pillar of light. She had redecorated her home and brought me some of the things she didn't need any more.

The yellow and gold items that she donated to the "Save the Mindy" fund added the pops of color that I didn't even know I needed. Sister Woodhouse is just oh, so very wise!

I was pleased with the results of the redesign, as were Bubba and Kristie, but there was still one obstacle in my pathway to complete home happiness: the 37 year old gold and blue carpet.

Fast  forward a few months and one giant cramming-everything-I-own-in-my-kitchen-weekend later and Voilà! The whole place looks brand new!

Sister Woodhouses' lamp? It looks brand new! My grandmother's antique desk? Looks totally new!

This adorable sparkly end table? It looks perfectly new! 

Wait...it is new. 

I just bought it. 

But still, you get the point, right?

My cute little hobbit hole is beautiful. lovely, of good report, praiseworthy, etc.

So the next time you are in the neighborhood, you should totally stop by and take a tour!

I am loving showing off my new carpet to everyone. The cable repair guy was very complementary, as was Val, my visiting teachers, the mail man...

... and the other members of our NEW ward Relief Society presidency. We had our first meeting in my NEWLY redecorated living room atop my NEW carpet. I guess my NEW carpet was just a harbinger of another, bigger, NEWER adventure.

Tracy (2nd Counselor), Rosana (President), Mindy (1st Counselor)

Home Sweet Homes

Guess who came to Cow Town last week!

After a very productive days working on lesson plans and camp songs in my home, my sweet mother and I decided to drive up the road a piece and look at some other people's homes.

I have lived in this cute little valley for almost eleven years and had never been up to the annual Victorian home tour. We started out at the opera house, one of two places in Oakley I had been to before.

The, using the handy-dandy map that the very nice lady at the opera house gave us, we walked the dusty streets to explore very old, very cool homes.

The townsfolk were super excited to have visitors. Each home on the tour had a gaggle of knowledgeable family members who served as tour guides who were so very, very happy to tell us all about the homes and the pioneers who built them.

The tour was a very educational and entertaining experience. At one of the homes, three generations of family members dressed in Victorian-era clothing. Super awesome.

So if you ever find yourself in Southern Idaho on the third Saturday in June, you should totally check it out. The townsfolk will be so happy to see you! I don't think they get many visitors...

If you were to come on a home tour of my cute little hobbit hole this week, there wouldn't be a whole lot to see. While I am hanging out with family for the 4th, my apartment is getting decked out with new carpet.

I love just about everything about my little home, but I will not shed a single tear for the 37 year-old blue and gold carpet that is being kicked to the curb in the next few days.Tears were very nearly shed, however, when  I realized that the new carpet process would require the relocation of all of my stuff. Because I have a lot of stuff. Like, A LOT.

And where is all that stuff now? In my kitchen, of course.

My poor, poor kitchen.

So, while I am looking forward to a not-extremely-extreme home makeover, I am NOT looking forward to sorting out that whole mess when I get home this weekend. But once I get everything back in its proper place, I will be happy to give you a virtual home tour of my cute, newly refurbished digs.

2015 Summer Niblet Challenge

Summer vacation is upon us once again which is important for three main reasons:
 1) The town pool is open again so Pam and I can swim every morning!
 2) I can go to the bathroom whenever I want!
 3) It is time for me to issue a challenge to homework-deprived niblets.

As important as reasons one and two may be (and they are oh so important...I am thinking about writing a sonnet to celebrate reason #2), post is dedicated to the task that the niblets and I are taking on for the summer.

You may recall that, two years ago, the summer challenge involved memorizing scriptures.
The Book of Mindy: Summer Challenge 2013

Then, last year, we memorized hymns and/or primary songs.
Summer Challenge 2014


This year, I thought  we would take a break from memorizing and do some writing instead. Because what kidlet doesn't enjoy extra writing assignments during the summer?

 So I am pleased to introduce the Niblet Summer Journal Challenge!

Each niblet received a personalized notebook wherein they shall write (at least) twice a week. They can write about things they did that week, things they learned, ways Heavenly Father blessed them, or things that made them happy that day.

And just in case they have trouble thinking of things to write, the first page of each book has a list of alternate topics. They could write about the kind things their mom does for them, the ways their dad has helped them, or the things they like/don't like about school.

Because Bubba is still a bit young for writing, his big sisters are going to help him with a picture journal as recommended by The Friend.  (Picture Journals for Little Friends) He will draw a picture of something and then tell Kenna or Kylie what it is and they will write the caption underneath.

My favorite part of each book is the page I got to write on. I wrote an "I love..., I Hope..., I Know..." for each niblet. Deciding what to write to each kid took some time, but I had so much fun and liked the results to much that I ended up copying each entry over to my own journal.

My Idaho niblets got their journals when they came to Cow Town just before school got out for the summer. Kenna and Kylie are especially goal-oriented children, so they took the challenge in a stride.

The Utah niblets, however, were a little less excited when they got their journals one week into the vacation. But that might have a little something to do with the weekly research essays they are having to write for their parents all summer. Poor little darlings. They will either grow up to be English teachers or as mad bombers writing manifestos in mountain shacks. Or both.

Morgan won't get her journal until she visits in July, but that is probably for the best. It's not like she has a lot of free time on her hands now that she is helping to run her dad's football team.

I am doing the challenge too, and am woefully behind already. That means, if I want to have any hope of not getting my woeful behind kicked by the niblets in yet another challenge, I had better get my woeful behind in gear.

 Maybe the niblets will let me print out blog posts and glue those in my journal?
Probably not. After all, they didn't show me any mercy last summer...
 The Laser Tag Song (Summer Challenge 2014 Half-Way Reward)

Classroom Karma

One of the first conversations I have with students in the fall is about classroom karma. I explain to the kidlets that, if they put good things out into our classroom universe, the classroom universe will reward them. But, if they make poor choices and send bad vibes into our classroom universe, the consequences will not be pleasant.

After years of explaining and pointing our examples of classroom karma, you would think that I would be wise enough to avoid making the kind of classroom decisions that would earn me a swift karma kick in the backside. But you would be wrong.

 A little background: Every now and then, a random summer school class will invade my classroom where they touch my stuff, use all my printer ink, touch my stuff, poke holes in the paper covering my bookshelves, touch my stuff, leave candy wrappers in weird places, and touch my stuff.

Summer school classes in my classroom  also make it impossible to work in said classroom during the day, which means I have to go in during the evening when nobody else is around which is a problem for two main reasons: 1) I am pretty sure I will accidentally set off the alarm, causing a full scale roll out by all four of the town police people and 2) the school is haunted and very scary in the dark.

So, in an effort to discourage any summer school classes from taking up residency in my classroom and touching my stuff, I filled it full of boxes of books borrowed from the lovely and talented Valerie. 

But that little act of territorial passive-aggressiveness didn't earn me a spot on the universe's naughty list. Nope. THAT happened when I went back to the school at 7:30 am the next week, before the summer teacher's arrived and became a bit less passive and a tad more aggressive about protecting my space. I spread books around the room, locked up my good pencil sharpener, and moved the  projector remote to the very back of my very bottom desk drawer. Then I sat at my desk, swimming noodles close at hand, ready to fend off any would-be-room-usurpers.

I knew I was being a brat, but I didn't care. But the universe apparently did. A lot.

I had been so dead-set on defending my territory that, when I had opened the back door of my classroom that morning, I had failed to notice that a giant swarm of giant mosquitoes had taken up residence in the grass right outside. When I had come into the classroom, so had they. And while I had been busy making my classroom inhospitable to people, I was apparently being a very hospitable host/buffet for the mosquitoes.

So the result of my selfish morning excursion was a karma-tastic collection of super-sized mosquito bites. And now, instead of a room full of summer school folks keeping me from getting a head start on next year, I have been evicted by a room full of the universe's hungry little little enforcers.

I wonder if they are touching my stuff?

Another School Year, Another Yearbook

The 2014-2015 school year is over, but more importantly, the 2014-2015 yearbook has been delivered! On Friday, months of building the book and weeks of organizing the delivery of 355 books to 355 kidlets in about 25 1A classes culminated in a lot of happy 'tweens and one tired yearbook adviser.

It is our yearbook staff tradition to come to school at 7 a.m. on the last day of school to organize the books for delivery after the last final has been given. We count books, put them in boxes, count them again, and then have breakfast while we sign each other's books.

We still met at 7 this year, but before we could sort the books, we had to take a last minute addition into each one: a tribute to our sweet Chance who was killed in an accident in April.

I was a little worried about getting everything done before school started at 8:25, but the yearbook minions were awesome.

They got the pages glued in, books sorted, counted, recounted, and boxed with plenty of time to spare for a pre-test breakfast.

Two tests later, the yearbooks were delivered to all 1A classes via carrier-kidlet.

Forty-five minutes and twelve But-I-Know-My-Mom-Paid-for-One-back-in-September near-meltdowns later, the books were gone, the kidlets were gone, and I was excited to go home and have a night of of yearbook-nightmare-free sleep.

So as soon as my grades were finalized and I had turned my checkout form in at the office, I grabbed my yearbook and then went home.
 For twenty minutes.
Then I got bored and went back to see if Valerie needed any help with her checkout stuff.

The rest of the afternoon could have been mind-numbing start to the summer. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE vacation. It's just that I tend to suffer from a bit of whiplash going from the craziest school day of the year to no school at all.

Lucky for me, I had niblets around to keep me busy for the rest of the evening. I think the summer is off to a good start!

Adolescent Desk Disorder

Some kidlets just aren't designed for sitting in desks all day.

Take this little guy, for example.

It became pretty obvious early on in the school year that I was going to have to make a choice: spend the year trying to teach him to sit in a desk the way desks were designed to be sat in  OR spend the year trying to teach him how to be a better reader and writer.

Can you tell which curriculum option I went with?

He is a really good, fun, smart kid. He doesn't try to be bouncy or wiggly. He has never walked into class with the express goal of recreating a Cirque Du Soleil routine in the back of the room.

It is just that he can only really focus on one difficult thing at a time, learning or sitting.

He can sit in his desk correctly OR he can participate in the class discussion. 

He can keep his feet on the floor OR he can get his work done.

He can be engaged in the lesson, or he can keep his backside in his seat.

And that is ok because he is THIRTEEN.

Someday soon, the parts of his brain that can think critically, plan, and control impulses will kick in and then siting still and listening won't be mutually exclusive activities.

I hope.

But if not, he can always get a job working at the junior high with the rest of us adults who never quite mastered those sitting-still-skills.